Soggy slog: Welcome to Wednesday, dear readers, as we splash through the midpoint of another wet winter workweek.
Fortunately, this damp precipitation situation can’t stop intrepid innovators like you – not with all this dry wit to keep you warm. Let’s soak up some inspiration!
Please hang up and dial again: And do it on a brand-new phone — your reward following International Mobile Phone Recycling Day.
Reduce, redial, recycle: It’s Jan. 24 out there, and we begin by dialing up International Mobile Phone Recycling Day, a flip-that-flip phone environmental effort created by the nonprofit Jane Goodall Institute. (Yes, the chimpanzee lady – and when you understand why, it actually makes a lot of sense).
Something nice to say: By the way, you look terrific today – just thought we’d throw that out there, with it being National Compliment Day and all.
And hey, Skippy, today’s a great day to tap your inner Peter Pan (in a Jif-y) – yep, it’s National Peanut Butter Day, spread around every Jan. 24.
Citizen Bob: Spreading around instructions for “good citizenship” was British Army officer Robert Baden-Powell’s “Scouting For Boys” handbook – published on this date in 1908 and regarded by many as the birth of the international Scouting movement.
Can do: Not necessarily the antithesis of good citizenship – but not helping much, either – is beer in a can, first introduced to the public on Jan. 24, 1935.
Big daddy: IBM’s Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator was one fancy adding machine.
Who’s your daddy? They may have raised a cold one (or maybe popped some corks) when the first computer to combine electronic computation with stored instruction – IBM’s Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator, known internally as “Poppa” – was dedicated on this date in 1948.
Ding! Massachusetts-based inventor Percy LeBaron Spencer certainly celebrated 74 years ago today, when he patented the microwave oven.
Security check: And it was Jan. 24, 2003, when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security officially began operations, marking the largest reorganization of federal government resources in five decades.
With former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge in charge, DHS – formed in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001 – coalesced 22 federal agencies into a single Cabinet-level entity.
Oral history: American Pentecostal evangelist Granville Oral Roberts (1918-2009) – who was personally commanded by God to faith-heal the masses, wrote 50 books, founded a university, performed questionable “miracles,” lived a life of opulence and suffered numerous personal tragedies – would be 106 years old today.
Donation sensation: Retton was a bona fide national hero — but not a fan of health insurance, it turns out.
Also born on Jan. 24 were German philosopher Christian Freiherr von Wolff (1679-1754), Germany’s leading voice during the Enlightenment; American writer and designer Edith Wharton (1862-1937), who earned a Pulitzer Prize for skewering the Gilded Age aristocracy; German American mathematician Oskar Morgenstern (1902-1977), who revolutionized social sciences and strategic decision-making by founding game theory; American actor, comedian and musician John Belushi (1949-1982), the boisterous and immensely talented “Saturday Night Live” founding cast member; and American physicist Michio Kaku (born 1947), an ace science communicator, futurist and sci-fi fan.
Tarnished gold: And take a bow, Mary Lou Retton! The retired American gymnast – the first American to win the all-around gold at the Summer Olympics, now facing tough questions after a near-death pneumonia scare and massive crowdfunding campaign – turns 56 today.
Wish the once-uber-popular Olympic hero well at editor@innovateli.com, where our crowdfunding requests are limited to news tips and calendar events.
About our sponsor: Presberg Law, P.C., is Long Island’s premier “IDA” and business-law firm for businesses locating, relocating and expanding on Long Island. Founded in 1984, this multi-generational practice focuses on the purchase, sale, leasing and financing of commercial and industrial real estate, SBA and other loan transactions, construction projects and business sales and acquisitions.
BUT FIRST, THIS
Difference-maker: Slight variations in its tail section set the Booralana nickorum apart.
Booralana on the barbie: Grab the melted butter – the vast oceanic ecosystem that brought you lobster, crab and shrimp proudly presents a previously undiscovered crustacean, newly identified by a Stony Brook University School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences biologist and friends.
Meet Booralana nickorum, a unique isopod found thriving in deep waters off The Bahamas (500 meters and deeper) by a team including SoMAS Marine Biologist Oliver Shipley and detailed this month in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Zootaxa. Measuring just a few centimeters long, Booralana n. is distinguishable from other Booralana species by “morphological features” along its tail and is the second new isopod species discovered during a long-term Exuma Sound study conducted by OceanX and the Cape Eleuthera Institute (after Bathynomus maxeyorum, identified in 2016).
While all-you-can-eat Booralana nickorum night isn’t coming anytime soon to your local Red Lobster, the discovery does boost understanding of global ecosystems – and proves human knowledge of oceanic lifeforms is limited at best. “This work … underscores how little we know about deep-sea ecosystems in The Bahamas,” noted SoMAS Research Assistant Professor Shipley, who predicts “a potentially hidden ‘treasure chest’ of unrecognized biodiversity in these waters.”
The heat is on: A longtime Long Island manufacturer – a leading producer of heat exchangers and related point-of-use systems – has completed an ambitious Garden City expansion project, with a nod to the Empire State Development Corp.
Heat-transfer specialist Exergy, a global distributor launched in 1979, has expanded its Endo Boulevard manufacturing facility by 4,000 square feet and optimized operations with the installation of a new vacuum-brazing furnace (ideal for bonding heat-exchanger parts) and cutting-edge computer numerical control machine. The expansion costs were offset by a $250,000 ESD capital grant and up to $60,000 in performance-based Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits – all endorsed by the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council – with the company committing to the retention of 54 local jobs and the creation of six new full-time positions.
That’s a good deal, according to Empire State Development President, CEO and Commissioner Hope Knight, who noted the grant and Excelsior credits “demonstrate how New York’s strategic investments cultivate the success of local businesses” and boost regional competitiveness. “As we fuel projects strengthening manufacturers like Exergy, we also catalyze careers and technologies that invigorate regional economies,” Knight added.
TOP OF THE SITE
Beach front: While leaning on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite regional repair efforts, Albany is funneling millions of dollars into coastal-resiliency work around storm-ravaged Suffolk County.
Take your pick: Spark: The Innovate Long Island Podcast gets you up close and personal with dozens of executives, educators, activists and inventors powering the regional innovation economy. Pick a leader and learn something new right now!
VOICES
The federal Corporate Transparency Act is now in effect, New York State-specific business-formation laws are on the way and tens of millions of small businesses and family-owned entities are in the crosshairs – leading Twomey Latham attorney and Voices Intellectual Property Anchor Allison Singh to review the pros and cons of these new corporate-transparency efforts.
STUFF WE’RE READING
Irrational: Despite bonkers “proof” from Fox News, Taylor Swift is not a Pentagon psyop. Forbes keeps it real.
Generational: Most billionaires make their money the old-fashioned way – they inherit it. Vox thanks Mom and Dad.
Dysfunctional: In a cost-cutting move, Walmart is shutting down its innovation hub. PYMNTS eulogizes Store No. 8.
RECENT FUNDINGS
+ MitoSense, a Massachusetts-based R&D company focused on neurodegenerative disease treatments, raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Caydan Capital Partners.
+ Kusari, a Connecticut-based software maker focused on supply-chain security, raised $8 million in pre-seed and seed round funding led by J2 Ventures, Glasswing Ventures and Unusual Ventures.
+ Cleveland Diagnostics, an Ohio-based clinical-stage biotech, raised $75 million in funding led by Novo Holdings and Symbiotic Capital.
+ Lightship, a California-based all-electric RV manufacturer, closed a $34 million Series B financing led by Obvious Ventures, Prelude Ventures, Allegis Capital, THOR Industries and the TechNexus Venture Collaborative.
+ Quantinuum, a Colorado-based integrated quantum-computing pioneer, closed a $300 million equity funding led by JPMorgan Chase, Mitsui & Co., Amgen and Honeywell.
+ Tandem PV, a California-based solar-technology manufacturer incorporating perovskite materials, raised an additional $6 million in funding led by Planetary Technologies and Uncorrelated Ventures.
Like this newsletter? Innovate Long Island newsletter, website and podcast sponsorships are a prime opportunity to reach the inventors, investors, entrepreneurs and executives you need to know (just ask Presberg Law). Marlene McDonnell can tell you more.
BELOW THE FOLD (Climate Change Edition)
Dry whine: Climate Change may soon end grape production in France’s fabled Champagne province.
Drill, baby, drill: The climate crisis has little effect on Republican voters.
Old tricks: How a 2,600-year-old ritual could slow global warming.
Bubble trouble: Could Champagne stop producing champagne?
Climate control: Please continue supporting the amazing firms that support Innovate Long Island, including Presberg Law, where decades of knowledge and experience always forecast smart solutions to important land-use issues. Check them out.
